bounced harmlessly off the shield around them.
After long moments of quaking, the mountain went still again. Marek's eyes were burning bright red as he stared down his queen. Kira bent over Bronwen face to see if he was still alive. His body was broken from the attack, and he lay motionless. As she sat up, the vacant eyes of her most trusted friend stared back at her. She cried softly as the truth sunk in. She didn't have time to indulge in her sorrow. The protective barrier had weakened as she had lost concentration and was consequently hit by several fiery missiles. Burn marks from the vicious attack appeared all over her body while smoke rose from her wounds. Her resolve and desire for revenge gave her new strength as she stood to face her attacker.
She straightened herself as she faced Bronwen's murderer and knew that she would have to kill one of her other trusted friends if she were to destroy this assassin. She did not hesitate a moment longer and sent a gust of wind of her own at the assailant who did not attempt to deflect the attack. The general was sent flying through the air some fifty feet backwards. Marek landed with a deafening thud and did not move. Kira sent balls of fire and rained down blocks of ice on the crumpled form of her loyal general. She then sent pieces of the cavern's ceiling crashing down on top of the motionless would be assassin. After the dust settled from the assault, no movement could be seen from the pile of rubble.
'Marek, are you still there? Are you still alive? Have I driven that demon from your body?' asked the queen with tears streaking down her scorched face. She felt sick to her stomach because she was sure she had just killed her friend. She hoped that she had killed whatever it was that possessed him; however, she got the feeling that it might still be there.
Suddenly the pile of debris exploded in every direction, and Marek stood up unscathed. The shadowy figure started to separate itself from its host. The general's body went limp, and he appeared to be unconscious. The figure started to take on a familiar form as it rose higher into the air. Before she realized fully who it was, the assassin sent a fatal mix of hailstones the size of an elf along with a powerful mixture of wind, fire, and parts of the ceiling at Kira. The queen was much faster than her attacker thought, and she sent fire out to destroy the hailstones. Sadly, she could not fend off all of the deadly projectiles. She was struck hard in the head by one of the burning chunks from the roof, which crushed her skull. She flew back through the air gracefully as she reeled from the blow. She landed on the ground by the exit to the waterfalls. Blood flowed freely from the head trauma.
As she lay their struggling to make sense to what had just happened, she could just barely make out who her attacker was. Her vision was blurry and her mind could not make sense of who she had just seen. Tears mixed with blood ran down her cheeks as her vision finally gave way. As the breath of life left her body, her mind finally registered who had killed her. This realization was too painful to bear and only lasted a few moments before her spirit left her body and she knew no more. The queen of the high elves had been murdered, and no one was left who knew what really happened except for General Marek.
The general's memory of the events was incomplete, and the parts where he was possessed he could not remember. As he regained his consciousness, he saw that he was alone and that Bronwen and Kira had been killed. There was no sign of the assassin anywhere. He cried out in vain for help that would not come. His hoarse voice echoed dismally off of the still cavern walls. He silently knelt down and retched. What have I done?
General Yukio had been organizing his army to maximize the defense of the city for the past three days when on the third day an unnatural rumbling sound came from the heart of Mount Quang. His men all cowered at the sound thinking that this mountain was now possessed by the same demons that haunted Mount Konane. Yukio knew immediately that something had gone horribly wrong. He called for his horse to be brought to him as well as his armor. Once his horse was prepared and he was ready for combat, he took off out through the main gate. The troops stared after him in disbelief. They were wondering where he was going. All he had instructed them to do was to protect against an attack. In a matter of a few seconds, he was out of sight.
He pushed his steed hard as he circumnavigated the mountain. He was heading to the Gorgen Falls. His horse would have to be left behind because of the narrow passageway once he arrived. He made it to the other side of the mountain unbelievably fast and jumped off his horse as soon as he was at the falls. He tied his companion to a sturdy tree, jumped into the pool and leapt through the wall of water. Once behind the falls he pressed the secret button, and the hidden door opened to admit him.
As he raced through the winding passageway, his thoughts were on General Marek. How could he let something happen to Kira? He promised to keep her safe! His anger and suspicion grew as he drew closer to his destination. The distance between the falls and the Twilight Cavern was much shorter than the path leading from the castle. When he had reached the cavern, he immediately noticed the immense devastation. He was sickened by the sight of Bronwen's broken body and turned his head in disgust. He bent down to check his friend for a pulse and found none. He stood up to survey the rest of the battlefield. Immediately he saw a figure hunched over another body he instantly knew was his wife's.
He roared in rage at the sight, and Marek stood to see General Yukio charging at him. His sword was drawn and anger consumed his face. General Marek stood defenseless as his friend approached. He tried to shout at Yukio to wait a moment so he could explain what he thought had happened, but his pleas went unheard. In Yukio's mind, he believed that high elven general had betrayed him. He began to draw his sword back as he neared the scene of the disaster. His friend did not flinch and stood tall to face the bringer of perceived justice.
Yukio twirled his long sword in his right hand as he swung down hard on Marek's drawn blade. The clash of steel shook the air for a moment and then the battle was on. General Marek was an accomplished swordsman, but he was no match to Nairian general. After a flurry of parries and wild slashes, the fight reached its apex. After a feint to the left that unbalanced the high elf, a dagger appeared in Yukio's hand. The small blade was quickly buried in Marek's side. This move proved to be the prelude to the fatal blow to follow.
Yukio gripped his sword with both hands and raised it at an angle over his left shoulder. As the general twisted a little more to gain leverage, he looked into the eyes of the person who had destroyed all he cared about in life and saw something that did not register immediately. The Nairian general roared in rage and with one fluid stroke removed general Marek's head. As he turned away from the headless corpse that was falling to the ground, he dropped his sword and knelt by the mangled body of his wife.
Her eyes were cold and distant as he looked at her face. He placed his hands on her deformed head so that he could read her final thoughts and see her untimely death. He immediately saw Marek attacking his wife with magic and saw everything else that transpired. In his mind, he believed he was justified in executing his friend who turned out to be the assassin. While looking through his wife's memory, the events of what happened had been altered somehow to show the general acting of his own volition. There was no recollection of a shadowy assassin.
Yukio laid his wife's head back down to the earth and picked up his sword again. He walked over to Marek's body and spat into his lifeless face. After a few moments of muttering curses over his friend's corpse, General Yukio stopped long enough to shout out in absolute rage. His yell was so loud that the walls began to shake and tremble. He then came to his senses and realized that the cavern had been destabilized by the various battles. The ceiling was coming down, and he had to act fast to get out of there. He picked up his wife and started toward the exit. As he neared it, he reached down and picked up Bronwen's body. He had a dead body over either shoulder as he reached the exit. As he entered the tight tunnel, the cavern collapsed on itself. Small rocks hit Yukio in the back as he continued to run.
He quickly reached the falls and the pool of water that his horse was drinking out of. As the disheveled general emerged from the tunnel, his body began to weaken rapidly. He threw the dead to one side and fell unconscious to the ground. As he awoke sometime later, he could feel hot breath as well as a moist thing caressing his face. As his vision cleared, he saw that it was his horse licking him. He slowly sat up and saw that there was a thick fog surrounding him. This made it difficult to see what lay around him at first. What he did know was that something deep inside him had broken and that he would never be the same again.
As he stood up, he felt pain both physical and mental like he had never felt before. He walked gingerly over to the pool and looked at his reflection. He was covered in blood and dust from his ordeal in the cavern. He cleaned off the blood and dirt from his body and armor by jumping into the water. After a few moments he returned to where he had cast the bodies of Bronwen and Kira. He spent the rest of the morning digging graves for his friend and his wife. Before he laid them to rest, he took his wife's crown off her head and Bronwen's badge off his dress robes. He would use this tattered badge and contorted crown as proof of the treachery of General Marek. He covered the bodies with dirt and then a massive mound of rocks. He then stood on top of his wife's grave and pulled out his
